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(File:Flag of the Republic of China Army.svg>22px

Huang Baitao(File:Flag of the Republic of China Army.svg>22px

Qiu Qingquan(File:Flag of the Republic of China Army.svg>22px|Flag of the National Revolutionary Army) Hu Lien

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Su Yu(File:People's Liberation Army Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg>22px

Chen Yi (communist)>Chen Yi

date=January 2018}}

date=January 2018}}

date=January 2018}}

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}{{Campaignbox Chinese Civil War}}The Menglianggu Campaign was a campaign fought between the nationalists and the communists during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era and resulted in communist victory. The campaign was later used by the communists as a specific battle example in their military science and history, as well as a propaganda piece. The battle mainly took place in Menglianggu of Linyi region in Shandong Province.

Prelude

From March 1947 Nationalists abandoned their original plan of all-out assault on every communist position; instead, they adjusted their strategy to a much more realistic one: concentrating on attacking the communists in northern Shanxi and Shandong. In the Shandong theater of war, GeneralissimoChiang Kai-shek named Gu Zhutong, the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, as the commander-in-chief at the front line, setting up his headquarters in Xuzhou. Gu Zhutong had 24 army-sized reorganized divisions totaling more than 60 division-sized reorganized brigades at his command, totaling 450,000+ troops. Out of that number, over 330,000 were in 17 army-sized reorganized divisions totaling more than 43 division-sized reorganized brigades, deployed on the first line, organized into three corps: the I, II and III. These were spearheaded by three crack units of the nationalist forces: the 11th Reorganized Division, the 74th Reorganized Division and the 5th Army. Out of the three corps, the I commanded by Tang Enbo was the largest and strongest, with almost 200,000 troops in eight army-sized reorganized divisions totaling more than 20 division-sized reorganized brigades; this unit was tasked with the main assaults on the communists. From late March to mid April 1947, nationalists succeeded in taking control of the regions along the section of the Jinpu railway from Xuzhou to Jinan and the entire southern Shandong region.The overconfident nationalists subsequently attacked the mountainous region in central Shandong in late April 1947 but suffered a setback for their carelessness in Tai'an-Mengyin Campaign, losing over 24,000 troops. However, such a setback was, in the overall scheme of things, considered a rather minor that could be ignored: a mere 5% out of the total force. The nationalists continued their original plan of pushing the arc-shaped front line continuously deeper into central Shandong and force the local communist forceâthe East ChinaField Armyâinto a decisive battle in which it would be annihilated; if the communists chose not to engage, then they would be forced to cross the Yellow River to flee north. The nationalist I Corps would attack toward the Yishui (æ²æ°´) and Tanbu (å¦å ) regions, then join forces with the II and III corps to attack northward and eastward, destroying the communist base in Shandong. Five nationalist armies were deployed in the region border by the QingdaoâJinan Railway, Jinpu Railway and Tai'an in the south to support the three nationalist corps. Another two army-sized reorganized divisions were deployed in Yi (å³) County and Zaozhuang respectively as reserves.

Strategies

After the destruction of the entire 72nd Reorganized Division in late April 1947 in the Tai'an-Mengyin Campaign, the nationalists became very cautious and concentrated their forces in their movements afterward. On May 4, 1947, the communist high command radioed the East China Field Army that since it was impossible to fight large nationalist formations because the nationalists had concentrated their forces, the current tactic of waiting for an appropriate opportunity was to be maintained As long as they were patient, there would always be the opportunity to annihilate the enemy. Two days later the communist high command once again radioed the East ChinaField Army to instruct local communists on several important points: Never be impatient and never separate the concentrated forces, because as long as the concentrated force are ready to be mobilized, there would always be the opportunity to destroy the enemy. Local communist commanders redeployed their forces in early May 1947 by withdrawing their main force eastward to the region east of Laiwu and Xintai, while the communist 2nd and 7th Columns, originally planned to be deployed to central China, were instead withdrawn to Ju (è) County, and the communist 6th Column was withdrawn to Pingyi (å¹³é) in southern Shandong. The communists were waiting to ambush the nationalistx at the proper moment.Natrionalist commander Gen. Chiang Kai-shek had erroneously believed that the communist retreat was a sign of weakness and that they were no longer able to fight any decisive battles, so on May 10 he gave the order to pursue and eradicte them. Gen. Gu Zhutong subsequently ordered the three nationalist corps under his command to give chase toward Boshan and Yishui. Gen. Tang Enbo, the commander-in-chief of the nationalist I Corps at the right flank, abandoned the previously proven tactics of prudently pushing the enemy and acted on his own without coordinating with the II Corps and III Corps; he ordered the 74th Reorganized Division to advance toward Tanbu on May 11 from Peach Village (Tao Xu, æ¡å¢) and Duo (å) Village in an attempt to take control of the region along the highway from Yishui to Mengyin (èé´). To protect his flanks, he ordered the 7th Army and 48th Reorganized Division to advance toward Yishui in the north, and the nationalist 65th Reorganized Division to guard Mengyin. The resulting advance dangerously overexposed the nationalist units.

On May 11 the communists learned that the nationalist 5th Army and 48th Reorganized Division had taken regions including Mia Family's Bent (Miao Jia Qu, èå®¶æ²) and Border Lake (Jie Hu, çæ¹) by venturing out from Riverine Sunny and was advancing toward Yishui, leaving them dangerously exposed. The communists decided to ambush these units and, if possible, also any reinforcing units. After the order was given, new intelligence revealed Tang Enbo's plan and that the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division was advancing toward Tanbu. Communist commanders of the East ChinaField Army analyzed the situation and decided that it would be better to first annihilate the 74th Reorganized Division because it was the most dangerously exposed, and the gap between it and other nationalist units were the largest, making it easier to surround and destroy it. The commander of the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division, Gen. Zhang Lingfu, was regarded by many other nationalist commanders as arrogant because he was a favorite of Chiang Kai-shek and so was not on good terms with them, especially with Li Tianxia, the commander of the 83rd Reorganized Division. His relationship with his direct superior Tang Enbo was also quite rocky, so the communists belileved that if the Lingfu's 74th Reorganized Division was under attack, other nationalist commanders would not be too enthusiastic about saving it. The rugged terrain would limit the mobility of the mechanized nationalist force, while the communists could take advantage of it to hide and move their troops. The 74th Reorganized Division was one of the top five crack units of the nationalist forces, and once it was completely destroyed it would be a huge psychological blow to the nationalist morale and good propaganda for the communists. Another reason they had for destroying Lingfu's forces was personal: he had openly and often proclaimed that his goal was to feed Communist commander Chen Yi "to the fishes by driving he and his followers into the East China Sea. The communists were therefore determined to destroy their nemesis.After thye communists had changed their mind on their targets, the communists ordered a redeployment of their forces on the morning of May 12: they would concentrate at least five columns (armies) to destroy the 74th Reorganized Division in the region bordered by the Menglianggu (å­è¯å´®) Mountains in the north and Tanbu in the south. Communist forces on their eastward march were ordered to immediately march in the opposite direction to the east of Mengyin. The Communist 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th and the Specialized Columns (armies) were assigned to attack the 74th Reorganized Division, while the communist 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 10th Columns (armies) and local militias were to prevent nationalist units, including the 5th and 7th Army and 11th, 25th, 48th, 65th and 83rd Reorganized Divisions from reinforcing the 74th Reorganized Division by blocking them in the regions of Xintai, Laiwu, Linyi, Lintai (ä¸´æ³°) and Riverine Sunny regions.

The critical minute

Chiang Kai-shek ordered nearby nationalist forces to do their best to save the besieged 74th Reorganized Division, but the communists were aided by the internal fights among the nationalists. Li Tianxia, the commander of the nationalist 83rd Reorganized Division was a personal foe of Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division, and he was not willing to commit fully to save his foe. In addition, Li Tianxia was very worried that the communists were using the besieged nationalist division as a bait to annihilate his own force, since his own division was not as tough as the 74th Reorganized Division, which could withstand the communist onslaught and survive. If Li Tianxia's 83rd Reorganized Division were to be ambushed on the way in the open without any fortification on its way to save the besieged nationalist force, it would be certain that his weaker division would be completely destroyed. As a result, Li Tianxia only sent out a single regiment in a symbolic move, and just as he had expected, this regiment was completely destroyed by the waiting enemy. In contrast, the nationalist 25th Reorganized Division under the command of Huang Botao ventured out in full strength to carry out Chiang Kai-shek's order, and by May 14, they had reached the Yellow Cliff (Huang Ya, é»å´) Mountain, which was a merely 6 km away from Menglianggu region, the last natural barrier. Both sides were keenly aware that whoever controlled the Yellow Cliff Mountain would decide the outcome of the campaign, and both sent out their crack troop to take the commanding peak of the mountain.The 16th Division of the communist 6th Column was tasked with capturing and securing the Yellow Cliff Mountain, and its 48th Regiment was the vanguard. After a forced march with troops had to eat and even sleep while on the march, the communist 48th Regiment finally reached the eastern foothill of Yellow Cliff Mountain. At the same time, a detachment of the nationalist 25th Reorganized Division also reached the western foothill of Yellow Cliff) Mountain. The 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 48th Regiment of the 16th Division of the communist 6th Column under its commander Zhai Zuguang (ç¿ç¥å ) scaled the cliff from the eastern slope, and after approximately 50 minutes, the communist company successfully occupied the commanding heights and other positions on the peak. Meanwhile, the nationalists were only 30 meters away, a minute of climbing, but very unfortunately, they were just a minute too late. The communist company immediately opened up everything they had, pouring dense firepower onto the approaching nationalists who almost succeeded, but was forced to make a hasty retreat after suffering dozen fatalities under enemy fire, and the Yellow Cliff Mountain would be firmly remain in the communist hand for the rest of the campaign. While the 48th Regiment of the 16th Division of the communist 6th Column maintained the firm control of the Yellow Cliff Mountain, adjacent positions including Ferocious Tiger (Menghu, çè) and Ten Thousands Springs (Wan Quan, ä¸æ³) Mountains were firmly in the hands of the rest units of the 16th Division of the communist 6th Column. Although the nationalists launched attacks on the communist positions with battalions and regiments, all of them were successfully repelled. When Wang Bicheng, the commander of communist 6th Column recalled the situation in an interview 32 years later in Wuhan, he still expressed the fear and appreciation of the communist luck: had the communists were a minute late and the nationalists were a minute earlier, the outcome of the Menglianggu Campaign would be quite different. Su Yu, the commander of East China Field Army who directed the campaign also expressed the same feeling numerous times.

Fall of the nationalist headquarters

Realizing that they were being in endangered being surrounded from behind, as well as facing counterassault in front if 74th Reorganized Division was not destroyed immediately, the communists decided that they must destroy the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division in time, at all cost, so the communists launched their general assault in the afternoon of May 15. The communist redeployed their forces, with the communist 1st Column in the west, the communist 4th Column in the north, the communist 6th Column in the south, the communist 8th Column in the north, and the communist 9th Column in the northeast, attacking the besieged nationalist 74th Reorganized Division at five fronts simultaneously. Realizing that the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division was in danger of being wiped out if reinforcement could not arrive in time, in the morning of May 16, Chiang Kai-shek personally issued another order once again to demand the 10 nationalist army-sized reorganized divisions reinforcing the besieged nationalist 74th Reorganized Division, but progress was extremely slow and by the fastest speed, it would still take days according to the progress already made: the advance of 8 army-sized reorganized divisions and 2 division-sized brigades that were closest to the besieged 74th Reorganized Division were all completely checked in the morning of May 16 by the communist forces deployed on their ways to blocking them. The battles at Mengliangu region were fierce after the communist launched their general assault in the afternoon of May 15, with most positions changing hands multiple times.The communist 4th Column first took Mount 330, and then took the region in between Mount 520 and the western half of Mount 540, thus successfully cutting off the retreating route of the nationalists. Realizing the dangerous situation, the nationalists launched several counterattacks, but all were beaten back with stubborn enemy resistance. With the reinforcements from the communist 1st Column and 9th Column, the communist 4th Column further attacked and took Mount 520 by midnight, killing most of the defenders. The surviving nationalist defenders of Mount 520 fled to Mount 540, but the communists would not give them a break and continued their attack on Mount 540. A detachment of the communist 4th Column scaled the cliff of the western half of Mount 540 and outflanked the defenders and launched a surprise attack. The surprised nationalist defenders could not react in time and rapidly fled toward eastern half of Mount 540, and the nationalist commander Zhang Lingfu was unable to stop his fleeing troops and his headquarters was dangerously exposed to the fire of the attacking enemy. Although the nationalist commander was able to make his timely retreat just in time from the eastern half of Mount 540 with rest of his staffs when he was forced to relocate his headquarters to Mount 570, but due to the heavy casualties of staff officers, the remaining headquarters was only a mere fraction of what it once was and could not function normally anymore like it used to. At dawn on May 16, the nationalists counterattacked the western half Mount 540 held by the communists in waves under fire cover, and the strength of their attack forces eventually grew to regimental size from the original company size. Communist troops of the 4th Column guarding the mount were exhausted and the nationalists seemed to be able to achieve their objective. At the last moment, communist reinforcement from the 1st Column and 4th Column arrived just in time, and successfully destroyed the counterattacking nationalist forces. The nationalists, however, were able to successfully driven back the communist attacks headed by the communist 9th Column to the eastern half of Mount 540, but they were unable to prevent the communist 6th Column and 8th Column from attacking toward Lu Mountain after successfully destroying nationalist forces in the area.The communist 9th Column launched another offensive simultaneously against the eastern half of Mount 540, Mount 570, and the main peak of Menglianggu mountains, with a portion of its force attacking the nationalists held eastern half of Mount 540 from the north and northeast, and the remaining forces attack the other two positions in the nationalist hands. By this time, the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division became disorganized and most units were fighting on their own after losing direct contact with the divisional headquarters over the phone, and orders and reports had to be sent via couriers and the few remaining radios. Due to the close proximity of the opposing sides and rapid enemy advance, the supplies and ammunitions airdropped by the nationalist air force in this stage of the war mostly landed on communist positions. The communists also utilized the prisoners-of-wars to operate the newly captured heavy artilleries pieces from the nationalists. The captured nationalist artillery crew was reluctant at the first and shelled the communist force attacking the nationalist position instead. After one of the artillery crew was executed in front of others, the prisoners-of-wars dared not to play anymore tricks and every round landed on its mark. By 08:00 on May 16, with nationalists strongholds at Eagle's Nest and Lu Mountain falling into the enemy hands', all nationalist positions on the surface with the exception of Mount 540 had fallen, and most of the defenders were forced into caves. At 13:00 pm, the communist 4th Column gathered five mountain guns and bombarded the eastern half Mount 540 while infantries advanced toward the nationalists held eastern half from the west. Meanwhile, the communist 6th Column also attacked the eastern half mount from the south. By 14:00, Mount 540 had fallen and the nationalist 51st Brigade was completely destroyed. Meantime, units of the communist 6th Column and 8th Column cleared out the remaining nationalist defenders in their caves of Lu Mountain, completely destroying the surviving 3,000 troops of the nationalist 58th Brigade.

When the Communista sent one of Zhang Lingfu's own distant relatives (nephew) deliver the request for his surrender, Zhang Lingfu refused and had the nephew executed. The Communists consequently sent captured nationalist prisoners of war back to continue to request Zhang Lingfu's surrender, but the nationalist commander stubbornly refused and wanted to have them executed as well. However, his subordinates convinced him not to execute anyone else, as it would only help no one but the enemy propagandists. Still, the inevitable end was near. After learning the nationalist commander refused to surrender, the communists organized several assault teams to charge the nationalist commander's hideout. Each communist assault team consisted of seven members, and a communist squad commander of the 2nd company of the 1st Battalion of the 69th Regiment of the 23rd Division of the East China Field Army named Ge Zhaotian (èå ç°) was among the last assault team that finally reached their destination after all previous communist assault teams were killed. After fierce battle, the communist assault team only consisted of three members led by a deputy platoon commander when they reached the outside of the cave where Zhang Lingfu's headquarters was located, and requested the nationalists inside to surrender. As others went out the cave to surrender, Zhang Lingfu emptied his last magazine of ammunition on the communists, severely wounded the communist deputy platoon commander. This enraged the communists who fired back, and as Zhang Lingfu was fleeing further into the cave, he was shot and killed along with several other nationalists by the submachine gun fire from the communist squad commander Ge Zhaotian in the assault team. The surviving nationalists shouted to the communist to stop firing because they would indeed surrender and threw out their weapons, and a total of eighty-three survivors came out hiding from the cave and nearby makeshift fortifications (mainly a waist-high stone wall constructed by the nationalists earlier). All were captured alive and led away to the prisoner-of-war camps.By this time, the communist reinforcement led by a deputy divisional commander named Dai Wenxian (æ´æè´¤) arrived, and seeing Zhang Lingfu's cadaver, the communist deputy commander was very upset because capturing the nationalist commander alive would be much bigger and better political propaganda, and that was exactly how communists had wanted, so Dai Wenxian asked angrily: "Who shot him? And Why?" Not knowing the nationalist officer killed was Zhang Lingfu, Ge Zhaotian angrily shouted back at his deputy divisional commander: "Why wouldn't I shoot him when he was shooting at me? I would shoot back even if he was Chiang Kai-shek!" The communist deputy divisional commander could not say anything more and had to excuse his soldier by asking him to help other to march the prisoners-of-war down the slope. Ge Zhaotian did not find out that he had killed Zhang Lingfu until years later. One of Zhang Lingfu's bodyguard named Zhu Fanyou (æ±å¡å) joined the communists after the campaign and became Ge Zhaotian's good friend after being assigned to the same squad. The two participated together in the remaining of the Chinese Civil War and Korean War, and then stationed together at Niechangshan (å é¿å±±) Fortification. It was only during this period when Zhu Fanyou finally revealed to Ge Zhaotian that the nationalist commander he killed was Zhang Lingfu. Although Zhang Lingfu's action well qualified him as a nationalist martyr, the nationalist regime honored its martyr in a different way by claiming that he committed suicide instead, as described in the eulogy titled "A summons to arms of Painfully mourning the (nationalist) 74th (Reorganized) Division" (çæ¼74å¸æªæ) written by Chiang Kai-shek, who claimed that over 20 nationalist commanders had committed suicide, while in reality, most of them were killed in action on the front line during the fierce fight against the enemy. Only the deputy commander of the Reorganized 74th Division, Major General Cai Renjie (è¡ä»æ°, 1902â1947), and the commander of the Reorganized 58th Brigade of the Reorganized 74th Division, Major General Lu Xing (å¢é, 1911â1947) committed suicide in the campaign.

Conclusion

After the news of their commander's death was known, the nationalist morale collapsed completely and the battle soon ended in the cloudy afternoon on May 16. The communist had fired over 33,000 rounds of artillery shells on the nationalist position at Menglianggu, a shock to the nationalists who believed their communist enemy lacked artilleries and could not achieve such dense firepower. As the communist units reported the nationalist casualties, the total number did not add up right: there was a difference around 10,000 between the sum and the supposed strength of the nationalist Reorganized 74th Division. Su Yu ordered all communist units to search the battlefield again, and it was soon discovered that nationalist survivors were quietly hidden in a valley between the main peak of Menglianggu and Mount 570, waiting for the communists withdraw from the battlefield so that they would be linked up with the nationalist reinforcement afterward. These nationalist troops were observed earlier by various communist units at the higher ground but all mistakenly believed that they were the friendly forces. As the communist 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th Columns approached the surviving nationalists who had run out ammunition, water and supplies, the only option the surviving nationalists had was to surrender and there was not much of a fight, and by 17:00 on May 16, 1947, the campaign was over.While the battles were raging on at Menglianggu region, other communist formations fighting in other areas had also successfully achieved their objectives of stopping the nationalist reinforcements. The communist 10th Column checked the advance of the nationalist 5th Army near Laiwu, and the communist 3rd Column checked the advance of the nationalist Reorganized 11th Division at the Xintai â Mengyin Highway. The communist 2nd and 7th Columns checked the advance of the nationalist Reorganized 48th Division and the 83rd Division at the region of Green Camel Temple, with the nationalist 83rd Division losing an entire regiment totaling around 1,000, half of the casualties nationalist reinforcement suffered. Other local communist militias threatened Linyi, preventing the nationalists sending additional reinforcements. Under the orders from Gu Zhutong and Chiang Kai-shek, the nationalist reinforcements tried hard to reach the besieged Reorganized 74th Division, with some of the reinforcement reached within 5 km (3.1 mi) of Menglianggu, but due to the stubborn enemy resistance, the nationalist advance was finally checked and the fate of the besieged nationalists were sealed. The communist victory was also due to its ability to mobilize 200,000 civilian to support their war effort, a number greater than the actual number of combatants the communists could muster.

Liu Wusheng, From Yan'an to Beijing: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 1993, {{ISBN|7-5073-0074-9}}